During Summer Game Fest, we got the chance to attend a closed-door session with The First Descendant, Nexon’s third-person co-op action RPG looter shooter. After the fest, we dove headfirst into the game’s preview build. We ultimately walked away with love for the characters, admiration for the traversal mechanics, and a question: can this disrupt the established games in the genre?
In The First Descendant, players become a Descendant with the mission to fight back against The Vulgus, an alien race who crossed dimensions over 100 years ago and brought with them the devastating Colossi. Your job, as is standard for most games (and I mean this in a good way), is to fight for the survival of humanity and protect Albion and the continent of Ingris. But the focus of the game isn’t to do this alone. Better while partied up, you work through missions and raids to finally discover the Descendants’ secret. With 4-player boss fights, that’s where players will find the most substance.
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One of the reasons that The First Descendant sticks out from the crowd is its character variety and their designs, which lean into higher fidelity graphics that genuinely pay off. Additionally, each of them is uniquely designed for different types of players. With nine players immediately available and three more coming, there is one for any player. Akin to hero shooters’ specialties, the character designs are beautiful and intimidating.
That said, you don’t start with all of them unlocked. Instead, you need to unlock them all through gameplay like crafting with Anais or by fulfilling quests. The crafting element is probably the most interesting mechanic for me in the game. It enhances the importance of clearing content in order to collect the materials necessary to unlock different Descendants. It should be noted that during the Summer Game Fest Preview, we were given time with the roster all unlocked and easy to explore.
One element that is extremely appreciated is how easy it is to switch between the Descendants to test them out and find the style that suits you best. That said, once you do, Nexon will be expanding them as fully-fledged characters with background stories to add to who they are. While the only one available at launch is Bunny, by offering story elements to each of their “hero” characters, Nexon has made it easy to get attached to your character beyond just the playstyle they allow.
To understand your kit, you need to know that Descendant skills combine Attributes and Arche types. The former plays an important role in the damage to monsters (which incentivizes switching Descendants as you play), including Fire, Chill, Electric, Toxic, and Non-Attribute. The latter is broken down into four different Arche Types: Fusion, Dimension, Singular, and Tech. Each of the skills can be equipped with equipment known as Reactors to increase efficacy and adjust the build you’re going for most, with modules also offering more in-depth customization to weapon abilities.
A looter shooter at its heart, there are 11 total firearm classes, and each offers its own battle styles, which are best matched with the core concept of the Descendant you play. Weapons can also be modified at workbenches, which allows you to transfer levels across weapons, reset them, and enhance their existing abilities. Additionally, the Reactors you keep inform the skill you use since conditions must be met to get the most out of them. Weapons are core to the game loop, and researching new ways to improve them is also important as well—adding resource gathering to the systems of the game.
While there are many Descendants to choose from, your characters have Levels and Mastery Ranks that are directly tied to unlocking and leveling up skills while also increasing their stats. Additionally, you’ll have to keep track of your Master Rank. Earning Mastery EXP helps increase capacity and slots while also opening up more systems to explore.
For support classes, there is a good mix of tank, healer, and general good supports that offer crowd control. With probably the dullest name but a fantastic mech-inspired design, Kyle is a straightforward shield-based tanker. Ajax offers a little more tank diversity with barrier usage linked to void energy and a focus on increased durability. Both play extremely well for any comp, but they aren’t the most fun to play in a game that thrives on its dynamic traversal mechanics.
Rounding out supports the idea that you have the only true healing character with Gley. She has a well-constructed self-heal—as you damage enemies, you get health, simple as that—and as a support Descendant, she’s a good pick. Healing adjacent, Jaybear’s main focus is dropping turrets that can work for either assault or recovery, depending on the moment. His versatility is interesting, but turret placement, like in other games, requires map knowledge that can give a slight learning curve.
On the pure support side of things, Valby is a crowd-control option built around water with a gap closer that is pretty wicked when you time it right. Viessa is also a character that utilizes water and compliments Valby’s crowd-control abilities. Classified as a Debuffer, Viessa’s ice-based abilities are focused on freezing her opponents and locking them in place, allowing key DPS-based Descendants to come in.
Lepic is a difficult Descendant to explain, finding himself with the durability of a beefier character with his passive skill that allows a chance to survive fatal damage. Additionally, he can pull in enemies and deal area-of-effect damage that lends well to crowd control for team play—but he also packs a hell of a punch.
For the DPS side of things, Blair is all about damage over time with his fire powers, and Freyna is similar as her poison increases how much damage is inflicted. With damage over time classes, they play well with other damage-centric classes. For those who have to go fast and are looking to deal damage by just running past mobs, Bunny is perfect in her role as Nuker. Her skill is to charge up her electricity-based abilities by moving around, incentivizing constant movement and prioritizing. Additionally, Sharen is all about close-quarters melee combat. With camouflage, Sharen is best used to ambush others and is great at targeted attacks, which takes positionality into account.
The content itself is as diverse as the characters available to play. The first is Infiltration Operations, which functionally work as instance dungeons that populate as you enter them through the Albion terminal. With 16 total, players have the option between normal and hard. Similarly, eight Special Operations felt pretty similar to Infiltrations, though they offer rewards when you complete a stage—the importance here is the research materials you can receive for completing them.
There are also Void Intercept Battles that work as the game’s core co-op content and play as such. This is the section of content that drew me in from the first release trailers—fighting the Colossi, which go by names like Grave Walker, Stunning Beauty, Dead Bride, and Swamp Walker. While their character models do feel fairly similar (Stunning Beauty and Dead Bride specifically), they are a whole lot of fun to beat and nothing beats the absolute blast you have zipping through the air. The signature traversal mechanic of grappling across environments and scaling vertical areas, is best used when fighting the Void Intercept Battle bosses. It’s essentially Attack on Titan in space—which is extremely fun.
Additionally, you’re given detailed breakdowns of the bosses before entering the content, allowing you to prepare and learn where the best weak spots are to take down first. This allows players to scale up to the battles at hand in an accessible way—with hard mode options for those looking for more challenge. Finally, The First Descendant world has much to offer regarding content you can access in the field. However, these are ultimately the least interesting gameplay elements and don’t hold the depth that the other content options offer.
That said, even when First Descendant’s content can feel surface-level, its fast-paced nature kept me engaged. The benefits of moving quickly help highlight the importance of good zone designs that take advantage of vertical movement. The world design is one of the most important features of The First Descendant. The zones’ depth and how you can move through them are expertly handled. Each dungeon is absolutely stunning, and that is where the game’s appeal lies. Nexon has created a world to enter, not just a game to play. And to be honest? I am so close to being all in.
The First Descendant is beautiful and shows the power of Unreal Engine 5 development. Whether it’s the characters—both in movement and still—the environment or the bases and objects themselves, you can see the attention to detail throughout the game. That beauty is going to be a draw for players across platforms. That being said, with only the Summer Game Fest preview, a few sessions over a week, and speeding through content, I’m left with questions about replayability.
While I’m sure getting a squad of friends together to tackle the different content experiences will increase replayability, switching Descendants is the main element of replayability. Leveling them up and exploring what they can do are all ways to make the content keep feeling dynamic. That said, once you settle into your favorite, the content has to stand on its own.
The First Descendant will have to overcome the main issue to make an impact in the United States at launch. The system depth that the game offers is fantastic once you get the hang of it, but with many other games in the genre sporting much more simplistic approaches to weapon upgrades, it may work against it, too. This is the clearest regarding weapon specialization, load-outs, module enhancements, reactors, and ability enhancements. It’s what makes The First Descendant unique in terms of customization, but at the same time, it can be a lot to process. Even with guide support, I often got lost and resigned to just plug and play to mostly successful outcomes.
You will find your stride and interest if you take your time to read and learn about the different modes, find them, and explore, but the play variances for each mode and task are too simple at times. There is a lot to do, but at the same time, it can also begin to feel repetitive. Which may make Hard Mode a must the longer you play. The game will easily find itself compared to Destiny 2 and even Outriders or even Warframe. With The Final Shape out and competing with the Dawntrail release date—another place multiplayer players will be—it may be an uphill climb for The First Descendant, but I do hope players give it a solid shot.
Ultimately, my time with The First Descendant was exciting. The Descendants have easily become some of my favorite character designs in the genre, especially where Bunny and Lepic are concerned (and with Yujin on the horizon, I’m beyond excited). While the amount of content can be overwhelming before it begins to blend together, the game’s dedication to fast movement and creating characters around it is a success. The characters are fit for their world. Their unique abilities make them important to play and build teams, and they have been expertly crafted.
The First Descendant is a kinetic good time, but I’m unsure about its longevity, given the steep competition in the genre. That said, its free-to-play model makes it very easy to just grab friends, jump in, and, at the very least, give it a try. I know I will be playing on day one.
The First Descendant releases on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 4|5 July 2, 2024.
